It’s not that I am immune to vanity—years fronting a band has put that to bed. But I just never had much use or interest in Klout…until now. What was once just a site measuring your social media influence (and occasionally throwing you some “perks” from paid supporters) is now actually, magically useful.

It seems Klout has had a taste of its own medicine and realized that for them to maintain their influence, they had to provide some sort of utility. This month’s redesign comes not just with a cleaner interface, but some functionality that allows you to discover, interact with and share content; thus, increasing your own Klout score. Yes, Klout has found content strategy.

It’s pretty clever, actually. Knowing that content is what people share on social channels, and the value of that content relates directly to their influence within their social spheres, Klout has decided to help its users by identifying potentially influential content. Users can choose segments or topics of interest and then Klout serves up the articles for you to read and share. The end result, of course, is more frequent and longer interactions with Klout.

Metrics that matter

So, how do they do it?

Klout segments and labels certain articles as:

Hot Off the Press

Hidden Gem

On The Rise

Occasionally, articles are accompanied by a message that tells you how likely it is that your network has not already seen a particular post, giving you something of a golden egg in content strategy: exclusivity (kinda).

The approach is really focused on sharing, not creating new content. But by paying attention to how the links you’ve shared perform, you can start to inform your own content creation calendar. And Klout promises to launch “click tracking, reach and reaction metrics” soon.

Conversations through the Klout lens

Klout also allows you to schedule your posts, which isn’t necessarily new, but they include “suggested sharing times” when your audience is most active. That further increases the likelihood of interaction and lets you space out your posts more effectively.

So, does it work? In the three days I’ve used it I have indeed seen a noticeable uptick in interactions with my tweets, which naturally has also improved my Klout score. I can also see who has interacted with what posts and continue the conversations.

As tools go, it’s all about how they are employed. But the fact that Klout recognizes the value of content to their organization should tell you something. If it’s all about “giving ‘em something to talk about,” Klout is making it easier.

Connective Thinking

Specific Topics

Related Thinking

Delight isn’t for everyone

As some of the Delight 2014 attendees experienced, airlines continue to focus on maximizing revenue rather than delivering a great customer experience. Most airlines today choose to scale back service and pack planes so tightly that using the traditional four inches of seat reclining space has become a battle between customers for personal space. If we’re seeing an arms race brewing over how two adults come to an agreement over how to share four inches of space, it’s clear that for many organizations, customer experience is all marketing and not part of the business strategy.